Real Madrid

Real Madrid and Gescrap Bizkaia will come face to face in three straight games, the first being held tonight at the Palacio de los Deportes in the last week of the first leg of the Top 16.

Real are tied with three wins with Bilbao in Group F and they will look to use their home advantage to break loose. Both teams know each other very well, with five former Madridistas on the northern roster, and Real will look to win with their stronger offence.

TEAM STATS IN TOP 16
Team	Place	P	W	L	PF	PA	Diff.
Real Madrid	3rd	2	1	1	150	168	-18
Gescrap Bizkaia Bilbao	2nd	2	1	1	152	151	+1

If the Whites manage to score their usual 85 points or more per clash and to instill the game with a high pace they'll have a great chance to win, especially taking into account Bilbao's roster is a bit long in the tooth. Bizkaia fare less well on the road, having earned only one victory away from Mirivilla Arena over Fenerbahce Ulker in Week 9 of the group stage. Mirotic has recovered in time for the clash and will receive the MVP Bwin Trophy before tip-off. Velickovic will also play.

The solid aim of Carroll, Mirotic, Sergio Rodriguez and Singler allows the team to bank 40% of its three-pointer attempts, enhanced by the efforts of Felipe Reyes, Tomic and Begic under the iron. Gescrap's Jackson, Vasileiadis, Mumbru, Banic and Fischer score 75% of the team's points and they have other strong players on the roster, such as Raul Lopez, Roger Grimau, Blums and Hervelle.

Real Madrid have the upper hand in the zone thanks to their intimidation and rebounding skills, as well as the versatility of their power forwards. They will nevertheless be tested by Marko Banic, Fischer and Hervelle. Real also have the best defence in the Euroleague, while Bilbao top the turn-over ranking with 15.5 on average per clash.

AVERAGES
TEAM	PF	PA	REB	AS	BL	ST	TO
Real Madrid	75	84	41.5	13.45	6.5	5.5	12.6
Gescrap Bizkaia Bilbao	76	75.5	35.5	14.5	4.5	5.7	15.5